As it appeared to me that considerable service might be rendered by a general survey of the western coast of Baffin’s Bay, which, from Sir James Lancaster’s Sound southward, might one day become an important station for our whalers, I determined to keep as close to that shore during our passage down as the ice and the wind would permit; and as the experience of the former voyage had led us to suppose that this coast would be almost clear of ice during the whole of September, I thought that this month could not be better employed than in the examination of its numerous bays and inlets.  Such an examination appeared to me more desirable, from the hope of finding some new outlet into the Polar Sea in a lower latitude than that of Sir James Lancaster’s Sound; a discovery which would be of infinite importance towards the accomplishment of the Northwest Passage.

CHAPTER XI.

Progress down the Western Coast of Baffin’s Bay.—­Meet with the Whalers.—­Account of some Esquimaux in the Inlet called the River Clyde.—­Continue the Survey of the Coast till stopped by Ice in the Latitude of 681/4 deg.—­Obliged to run to the Eastward.—­Fruitless Attempts to regain the Land, and final Departure from the Ice.—­Remarks upon the probable Existence and Practicability of a Northwest Passage, and upon the Whale Fishery.—­Boisterous Weather in Crossing the Atlantic.—­Loss of the Hecla’s Bowsprit and Foremast.—­Arrival in England.

The wind continuing fresh from the northward on the morning of the 1st of September, we bore up and ran along the land, taking our departure from the flagstaff in Possession Bay, bearing W.S.W. five miles, at half past four A.M.

The ice led us off very much to the eastward after leaving Pond’s Bay; and the weather became calm, with small snow towards midnight.  In this day’s run, the compass-courses were occasionally inserted in the logbook, being the first time that the magnetic needle had been made use of on board the Hecla, for the purposes of navigation, for more than twelve months.

On the morning of the 3d we passed some of the highest icebergs I have ever seen, one of them being not less than one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet above the sea, judging from the height of the Griper’s masts when near it.

The vegetation was tolerably luxuriant in some places upon the low land which borders the sea, consisting principally of the dwarf-willow, sorrel, saxifrage, and poppy, with a few roots of scurvy-grass.  There was still a great deal of snow remaining even on the lower parts of the land, on which were numerous ponds of water; on one of these, a pair of young red-throated divers, which could not rise, were killed; and two flocks of geese, one of them consisting of not less than sixty or seventy, were seen by Mr. Hooper, who described them as being very tame, running along the beach before our people, without rising, for a considerable